Hardcore heroes Convergeshould have the right to rest on their laurels. After putting in years developing their sound in the ’90s and then releasing a string of albums during the last decade that culminated in a shower of critical praise, one might think that the band would rest and take stock of their achievements. Lucky for us, Converge are still hungry. Early this October, they released their latest album, All We Love We Leave Behind, another ferocious burst of the band’s unique blend of punk, metal, and hardcore. We recently caught up with vocalist Jacob Bannon to talk about the economics of creativity, the passage of time, and his surprising fondness for Tina Turner.

OS: The cycles of the moon appear on the album art for All We Love We Leave Behind, and the moon is also the first thing that appears in the Aimless Arrow video. What is the importance of that image for the band?

Jacob Bannon: When Max Moore (director of the video) started work on the piece, I sent him a variety of visuals intended for use in the album, along with the storyline of the song itself. He did a fantastic job at capturing the energy of my work and his interpretation of the lyrical content through his own eyes. The use of the moon in the beginning of the piece is a great example of that. The cycles of the moon represent a passing of time, age, wisdom, but at the same time, an unknowingness of the future and a cloudiness of the past.

Pony Boy, the brainchild of Marchelle Bradanini, is a self-described “junkyard country” group that sounds like a dusty old Ford rumbling down a deserted road. Having already put in time as a member of the eclectic Bedtime for Toys, Bradanini channeled her rediscovered love of classic country, blues, and Americana into her latest project. We caught up with her to chat about her poetic past, her distaste for manicured pop, and what really separates her from R. Kelly.

OS: You’ve been involved in some eclectic musical projects in the past such as Bedtime for Toys or you DJing project Pony vs. Tiger. What got you interested in the aesthetic of your current band?

MB: I started out just as a girl with a guitar influenced by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. Then, I ended up starting a band with some friends and that was about playing music that a group of people came up with collectively at a different point in my life. When that band broke up, I was trying to figure out what I was doing next. Oftentimes you get asked to DJ after playing a show, and I had a pretty decent vinyl collection. While I was working out exactly what the solo project would be, I started getting asked to DJ all over the place. The nice thing was that those gigs were for people who wanted rock ‘n’ roll or classic country, and it was a great opportunity to go back and rediscover all of these old, great artists that I love: John Prine, The Allman Brothers, and even Ram Jam [laughs]. There’s the electronic DJ scene, but then there are also people who want to hear actual songs that were initially released on vinyl. Getting into that scene was really great because I got to work on playlists all day. (more…)

The Bob Seger catalog is the rock & roll equivalent of your skeletal system”you probably take it for granted to the point that you seldom think about it, but where would you be without it? In a crumpled, crippled heap on the floor, that’s where. Seger’s influence is so deeply embedded in American music that even some of his musical offspring might not realize it, as they’re inspired by artists who were in turn inspired by Seger himself, making for a kind of musical trickle-down theory. For instance, at least twenty-five percent of the current crop of male country artists owe their CMA awards to Seger’s heartland rock sound, even though they probably came of age soaking it up second-hand via John Mellencamp, et al.

Most people’s knowledge of Seger’s work extends about as far back as his 1976 breakthrough album, Night Moves, but the Detroit demon had already cut eight other albums before that, recording his first single while still in his teens back in 1961 and releasing his first record under his own name in ’68. He was turning out tough-minded, roots-rocking odes to the proles when Bruce Springsteen was still playing psychedelic guitar hero in Steel Mill, so even when most of the world came to know Seger for the first time some thirty-five years ago, he was already a well-traveled road dog. But after half a century in the business of rocking, sixty-six-year-old Seger seems to have no intention of settling into retirement.

Every great screen biography of a music superstar needs three key ingredients to really sing: 1) An icon with the greatest story never told. 2) A talented lead actor or actress gunning for an Oscar nomination”singing talent and striking resemblance optional (Angela Bassett didn’t sing a word in What’s Love Got to Do with It, and she looks nothing like the film’s subject, yet she was Tina Turner). 3) Kick-ass songs.

Fantasia Barrino as gospel great Mahalia Jackson is coming soon. The Elton John Story (aka Rocketman) is reportedly finally in the works (I’d cast Justin Timberlake over mentioned favorite James McAvoy and pray that he can nail a British accent), as is Aretha Franklin’s (with or without Halle Berry, the Queen of Soul’s No. 1 choice), Anne Hathaway as Judy Garland and Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddie Mercury.

Robert Pattinson was announced as a possible Kurt Cobain at one point last year, but it’s hard to imagine that we’d get the true story as long as Courtney Love is around to kill it or put her spin on it. Ryan Gosling has the chops to pull off Cobain, but he’s already in everything and he’s several years older than Cobain was when he committed suicide. Note to aspiring biopic producers: One doesn’t have to cast a “star” as the star. Some biopics (Amadeus, starring Tom Hulce as Mozart; La vie en rose, with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf) do just fine without huge names.

Now that she’s gone too soon, too, it’s probably only a matter of time before we get Amy Winehouse‘s “untold” story. Note to aspiring biopic producers: Tabloid-era stars are best left alone unless, as with Eminem’s 8 Mile, the focus is on life before they were famous. Otherwise, we’ve already seen the action play out in the pages of Us Weekly and People magazine.

But what about those biopics in various stages of development and non-development? Here are six that I’m dying to see.

1) David Bowie: The star. The spectacle. The songs… Iman. I can’t think of a rock icon whose story is more deserving of the screen treatment. It would be a shoo-in for the Best Costume Design Oscar, and with a star like Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who already played a Bowie-esque figure to perfection in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine), an actor worthy of the material.

In a surprising change of pace from his regular stream of silly and pointless tweets, rapper 50 Cent shared his intent to feed one billion (yes, billion) people in Africa within a period of five years. Immediate reactions ranged from the positive and encouraging to the aggressive and negative. Apparently, the greatest complaint he’s received so far is his decision to lend a helping hand to people in another continent, while there is so much need in his home country. And, in a rather uncharacteristicshow of levelheadedness, he responded: “people here have a fair shot.”

Celebrities using their stardom to help people in need isn’t something new, and Africa is no stranger to this. Bono, Michael Jackson, Oprah, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen… these are but a scarce few of the celebs who have used the spotlight to do good in afflicted regions of the continent. But there have been increasing accusations of these acts being nothing but a publicity stunt to improve their public image and get on the media’s good graces. Considering his current relationship with the public eye and the positive media coverage he’s received in recent times, it’s hard to imagine 50 Cent would stoop as low as that merely for extra followers on his Twitter account.

As ridiculous and farfetched as this goal may be, we can’t help but feel that Fitty’s intentions are genuine and hope that he will, in fact, do his best to make it happen. Besides, the harm made by a promise gone sour would be more than enough to split his fanbase. As most things in life, only time will tell what is to come of this.

If you want to send him your support, simply send out a tweet with the “#SK” hashtag and your best wishes.

Musicians are an unruly bunch. They’re in constant competition on and off the charts, going for each others’ jugulars”talking first and thinking later. Rappers have been throwing stones back and forth since the ’80s days of LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee and Roxanne Shanté vs. The Real Roxanne. From the Supremes and the Rolling Stones to the Verve, Oasis and Sugababes, infighting among groups is nothing new. Solo pop stars, in comparison, were relatively cordial for years, and then the steel claws came out.

In a 1998 Movieline interview, Jennifer Lopez asked that Madonna not “spit” on her acting craft, while also aiming her slingshot at then-non-singer Gwyneth Paltrow as well as Winona Ryder. Elton John, perhaps the most outspoken guy in pop, not only criticized the quality of his former BFF George Michael’s 2004 Patience album, but he also went on the record to caution Michael on the evils of his substance-abusing lifestyle. John, who famously pitched a hissy fit directed at Tina Turner while the two were rehearsing for VHI Divas Live in 1999, also once called “Die Another Day” by Madonna “the worst [James] Bond tune of all time.”

The bigger you are, the harder they go after you, and these days, Taylor Swift aside (and more on her later), nobody’s bigger than Lady Gaga.

Former Spice Girl turned designer Victoria Beckham went to town on Gaga in an interview this month with Women’s Wear Daily. If I’m being completely honest, is it fair to say she may have become a little bit of a parody of herself?” she asked. Maybe, maybe not, but it’s quite the turnaround from Beckham’s Gaga POV in a Daily Mirror interview this past July: Bit by bit she is finding her image, and it’s nice to see it, as she is undoubtedly a talented girl. I suppose it’s a pop star’s prerogative to change her mind”and it definitely makes for more interesting reading.

So does M.I.A.’s take on Gaga. She griped in NME last spring that Gaga was ripping off Madonna and Grace Jones and dismissed her as a “good mimic.” Then in June, Katy Perry took a thinly veiled swipe at Gaga’s controversial “Alejandro” video, tweeting that “Using blasphemy as entertainment is as cheap as a comedian telling a fart joke.”

Gaga isn’t the only one bringing out the beast in her fellow performers. Elaine Paige referred to her No. 1 fan Susan Boyle as a “virus” during an interview after the South Banks Show Awards in January. And depending on whom you believe, Lou Reed may have blocked Susan Boyle’s attempt to sing his “Perfect Day” on America’s Got Talent in September (his people say US licensing issues, not Reed, were to blame), but he made it up to her by directing the video for Boyle’s “Perfect Day” video.

All is forgiven. If only things had gone so smoothly for Kanye West. After he dissed Taylor Swift last year at the MTV Video Music Awards, legions of stars, including Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Adam Lambert jumped to Swift’s defense. Of course, Katy Perry joined the anti-West brigade tweeting the following message to the rapper: “FUCK U KANYE. IT’S LIKE U STEPPED ON A KITTEN.” Meow!

When words fail them, some stars let their videos do the dissing. Pink lampooned Jessica Simpson, among other starlets, in her 2006 “Stupid Girls” video. Eminem has skewered Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, ‘N Sync, Moby and Michael Jackson in his videos, and he’s gone several rounds with his alleged (by him) ex-lover Mariah Carey, who retaliated by dressing in drag as Eminem and playing him as a stalker in her “Obsessed” video.

Over in the U.K., Lily Allen has stood in for Gaga as a favorite pop-star punching bag since she broke on to the global pop scene in 2006. Katy Perry, naturally, started a war of words with her a few years back when she described herself as being a “slimmer version of Lily Allen.” In retaliation, Allen called Perry “crass” and in a truly post-millenial move, threatened to post her telephone number on the internet. What happened to simply challenging her to a fist fight, as an irate Mary J. Blige did in the ’90s during an Interview magazine chat with model Veronica Webb?

Joss Stone also took aim at Allen last year, calling her “more of a personality than she is a singer,” and responded to her anti-filesharing stance by saying, “[Lily] needs to sell records because she’s not a singer, and that’s not an offence to her because I think that she knows that too.”

And on October 31, UK X Factor judges Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue gave Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay a rather frosty reception after his band performed on the show because of some expletive-laden comments Kay made about the show and the credibility of its judges shortly before his appearance. (The printable portion: “You’re useless. The pair of you.”) Cole won the war a week later when her second solo effort, Messy Little Raindrops, entered the UK album chart at No. 1, six notches above Jamiroquai’s new Rock Dust Light Star. Check. Mate.

Do you believe in reincarnation? After listening to this week’s iRock artist, it seems like Jimi Hendrix has been reborn 40 years later”this time as a sultry soul rocker from New Jersey. That’s right, Jersey got its groove back. Danielia Cotton is single handedly redefining the black rock that Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone and Tina Turner laid down many years ago. Not only does Danielia have an irresistible vocal tone but the funk rock-driven guitar that she hammers away in “Make U Move” really gets you groovin’ to the beat. Danielia implements many different influences in the country-esque tune “Bang My Drum” with gospel style vocals helping push the song along. Between both tracks, Danielia finds her sound and knows how to get the listener hooked from start to finish. Take a listen below and spread the word about this fantastic OurStage artist” she definitely deserves it with all the hard work she’s put into her music.

After many months of listening to the rock artists on OurStage, I haven’t come across a musician as authentic as Danielia Cotton so I knew that she would be the best artist to feature on this last post. Without further ado, I bid you all a fond farewell and leave you with something I hope you all can appreciate. Keep supporting underground music”only you can help these young artists find their path into the limelight.